[whatwg] Installed Apps

[John Gregg]

> TO SUMMARIZE:
> -There are many other existing ways to notify
> -I'd suggest browsers have a Notification process with which open tabs
> register.
> -Registered open tabs could tell the browser to pop up a notification,
> perhaps with title text, body text, and image
> -Clicking the notification would set focus to the browser and to the
> notifying tab.
>
> To solve the lifetime issue:
> -Torn-off tabs run in separate processes
> -Processes may be re-skinned to appear as applications, but are really
> tabs.
> -Minimized/docked Processes taken off the taskbar/dock and into a
> notification area or Application Manager
> -If the rest of the browser is closed, the main process will stay on until
> the application tabs are closed
> -Browser's 'Application Manager' in notification area or taskbar/dock (and
> as a button in the main browser) holds all open application tabs
>
> Have I forgotten anything?
> Even without the application tabs, the notification process would be great
> to implement.
>

I think it's appeared on this thread before, but I'm currently working on an
API to provide desktop notifications.  A patch has been proposed to WebKit
at https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=25463.

I had originally proposed it to this list back in March under the context of
persistent workers, which had the same motivation that you describe:
background process while the application tab is closed.  Now I think it
makes more sense to make this API available generically (pages included, as
the above WebKit patch does) subject to permissions, so that it will be
available to applications regardless of where they end up running.

Desktop notifications are pretty useful even when the tab is active but
minimized, so it doesn't necessarily need to be wrapped up in a persistent
installation process, as long as permission can be established.

 -John
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